Make a door with curtains and a tension rod

This is one of those tips that may be so obvious it’s not worth reporting, but it’s pretty cool. If you have a doorway with no door that you’d like to block off for privacy, you can stick a shower curtain tension rod near the top of it and hang curtains from it. It couldn’t be simpler – you don’t have to drill anything into a wall. Since shower curtain rods come in plenty of finishes and colors with decorative ends, it even looks nice.

I discovered this trick when I was living in an apartment where all the heat in the living room seemed determined to drift through a doorway into the hall. I put curtains in that doorway and it held a surprising amount of heat in the room.

My current apartment doesn’t have that problem, but there is this odd little vanity sort of deal where there really should be a coat closet and/or linen closet (the only things missing from my otherwise awesome place). So I closed it off with the curtains:

Now I can use that whole area for random storage without it looking like an eyesore to guests. I haven’t filled the area completely – in fact, I thinking of sticking another tension rod behind this one and hanging some clothes on it – but the toilet paper now has a place to hide, along with a backpack and some other stuff:

I’m thinking this is a great idea for open pantries you’d prefer to close off. So what else could you do with this, besides closing off open doorways up to 12 feet wide?

• Make a “closet” out of any weird alcove or architectural niche that could be used as storage. As I said above, another tension rod makes it into an actual clothes closet.
• Block an entry foyer for privacy so random people who come to your front door don’t get a good look at your business.
• Close off an open breakfast bar in a kitchen.

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Posted in Do It Yourself on October 19, 2009